Strong and Courageous

Strong and Courageous: Following Jesus Amid the Rise of America’s New Religion
by Jared Longshore & Tom Ascol
(Founders Press. 2020)

Over the last two years, much of the professing church around the world was exposed as weak. For fear of safety, churches forsook the assembling together for public worship. Governments either forbade churches from meeting at all, or heavily restricted their worship by forbidding certain people from gathering or limiting capacity. Tragically, congregations and men who had made a show of doctrinal strength and conviction quickly collapsed in the face of tyranny. The few who made headlines with their defiance of tyranny were even vilified by fellow believers. It was revealed that many professing Christians idolized safety, and would rather obey man than suffer the possible consequences of obeying God. To say it the other way: Christians have been exposed as an incredibly fearful people. Fearful of their neighbors. Fearful of sickness. Fearful of death. Fearful of the state. Many professing Christians finally counted the cost of discipleship, and found the cost too high. Whether for fear of sickness, public criticism, or actual civil punishment, continuing to worship God as commanded was just too risky.

A wrong understanding of authority was also exposed. Who is the head of the church? Who dictates who may gather for worship? All Christians need to be clear on the boundaries between church and state. It seems that in countries with (relative) religious liberty, Christians simply didn’t know what to do when that taken-for-granted liberty was suddenly taken away in the name of “health and safety.” From a few months to two years, even confessional churches were playing the Erastian, functionally acknowledging the civil government to have headship over the Church and surrendering the keys of the kingdom to presidents and health secretaries.

Strong and Courageous by Tom Ascol and Jared Longshore is the book we all needed in response. It’s the book I wish I had read right when it was published. It’s the book that will provoke self-examination, repentance, indignation, and righteous resolve. Though written in the American context for the church in the states, it’s not hard to transfer the principles, and even some direct application, to the church in other countries.

I’ll reflect on but a few points from this book. *See the table of contents for all the subjects the authors deal with.

Many churches with excellent theology seemed to not believe in God’s sovereignty as much as they claimed to. Ascol and Longshore demonstrate profound insight on this point: “Too many Christians have been all about virus-avoiding tactics with little or no, “Lord have mercy.” Why has this been the case? Because we are often rank materialists when it comes to our conception of reality” (Location: 436). Pastors and elders, entrusted with the ministry of the Word, should have been the first to correct this impulse.

If we really were concerned about our health, we would prioritize public worship, for we are more than just bodies. If we really cared to “love our neighbor” we wouldn’t deprive them of the lively preaching of the gospel and the pure administration of the sacraments, the fellowship and the prayers. That’s what we need, as made in God’s image and members of Christ’s body. Churches that caved robbed themselves of the opportunity to witness God’s mercy and goodness. Persevering in spite of the “health risk” and in the face of possible civil punishment was simply an act of faith in our God, that he would care for us if we obey him, despite how circumstances appear. Pastors, elders, and congregations that chose to obey God rather than men experienced enormous blessing and spiritual growth over the past two years. The authors write:

You will have all sorts of trouble defying tyrants if you are confused about love. Secularism has attempted to change the dictionary so that love is essentially accepting someone for who they are. But God is the one who defines love. Jesus was pretty loving, and He got crucified. People hated Him. But the evangelical mind says that if people hate you, then you must not be loving. You certainly could have been more charitable. “What did you expect?” they say, “You disobeyed your civil authorities. Your witness is now shot.” But genuine love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). If civil authorities mandate wrongdoing, then to defy them is love to neighbor. We have heard many Christian leaders say something like, “We decided that the most loving thing we could do was wear a mask. We decided just to love our neighbor during this season and not meet.” Our response has been, “We decided to love our neighbor and assemble the church.” What could be more loving to neighbors than to keep up the public worship of the God who gives life to all people? (Location: 863)

The Bible is clear, to be sure: God commands public worship. For the majority of church history, the church has persevered through persecution. But many Christians acted as if public worship was a privilege granted by the state, who gives and takes away. They didn’t truly understand who’s really The King. They love the church, they love worship, they love the ordinary means of grace, they love fellowship. But as soon as the 24/7 multi-media-flood of “YOU’RE GOING TO DIE” got going, they gave it up without hesitation. For how many months, or even years? And even if partially gathering, for how long did they functionally excommunicate the covenant children and the elderly from the public gathering? Indeed, true priorities were exposed: physical health over spiritual health. The church was listening to the wrong news: the government’s promise of physical safety over Christ’s promise of spiritual life through Word and sacrament.

Christians are not immune to the temptation to fear death and, therefore, to live their lives enslaved by this fear. Jesus can set us free from such fear and enable us to face frightening things with faith because He has defeated sin, death, and the devil in our behalf. We do not have to be paralyzed by the prospect of danger or death. Nor do we have to idolize safety. Jesus has defeated death and there is no safer place in the world than to be in Him through faith. (Location: 1,841)

Faithfulness only when convenient, only when there’s no “risk,” is not faithfulness. That’s just rocky soil. It was a tragic lesson that we’ll be all about public worship, when it’s convenient. We can be doctrinally sound, confessional, studious, making immense effort for the ministry—until the state says “no.” The state has learned that most of the professing church will fold like a cheap card table when the pressure is on. They’ve got your number. Don’t think they won’t try it again.

The church needs to gear up. Christians must hold their pastors and elders accountable to stay at their posts and shepherd the flock of God entrusted to them. Some Christians will need to find new local churches that are actually led by courageous men willing to suffer for the freedom we have in Christ.

Church officers especially should read this book to hopefully prompt themselves to repent for any capitulation in the recent past, and perhaps fortify themselves for persecution in the future. Men in church office need to act like men commissioned by Christ, and remember that “safety” is never a guarantee. The church as a whole needs more backbone.

Next time the government, that opposes God and doesn’t rule in righteousness, tells the church not to worship, what will you do?

This book right here gets a 10/10.

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So this is the choice that Christians are facing in times of difficulty. We can settle for an appearance of godliness while denying its power and win the accolades of this age. Or we can pursue real godliness and trust its power thereby inviting the venom and opposition of the champions of this age. To put it another way, we can signal false virtue and be welcomed by those operating on false principles of righteousness. Or we can practice genuine virtue and be welcomed by the God whose Word we refuse to compromise. What we cannot do is have it both ways.
—Tom Ascol (Location: 2,594)

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